Judges
Chapter Two
1 ¶ Then the Angel
of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from
Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said,
'I will never break My covenant with you.
2 'And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall
tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done
this?
3 "Therefore I also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they
shall be thorns in your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"
4 So it was, when the Angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children
of Israel, that the people lifted up their voices and wept.
5 Then they called the name of that place Bochim; and they sacrificed there
to the LORD.
6 ¶ And when Joshua had dismissed the people, the children of Israel went
each to his own inheritance to possess the land.
7 So the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of
the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD
which He had done for Israel.
8 Now Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died when he was one hundred
and ten years old.
9 And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath Heres,
in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash.
10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation
arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had done for
Israel.
11 Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served
the Baals;
12 and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out
of the land of Egypt; and they followed other gods from among the gods of the
people who were all around them, and they bowed down to them; and they provoked
the LORD to anger.
13 They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
14 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into
the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands
of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their
enemies.
15 Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for calamity,
as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were greatly
distressed.
16 Nevertheless, the LORD raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand
of those who plundered them.
17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with
other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which
their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not
do so.
18 And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge
and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge;
for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed
them and harassed them.
19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved
more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and
bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn
way.
20 Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and He said, "Because
this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and
has not heeded My voice,
21 "I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which
Joshua left when he died,
22 "so that through them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the
ways of the LORD, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not."
23 Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out immediately;
nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.
Go to Chapter Three
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